The war against tobacco: 50 Years and counting

摘要

Fifty years ago this week, Luther Terry, then surgeon general of the United States, convened a press conference to release the first surgeon general's report Smoking and Health. Prior to release, the details of the report were shrouded in secrecy, and a Saturday release date was chosen to minimize the report's effects on financial markets. The report-based on review of an estimated 7000 documents-concluded that "cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in men; the magnitude of the effect of cigarette smoking outweighs all other factors; and the risk of developing lung cancer increases with the duration of smokingand number of cigarettes smoked per day, and diminishes by discontinuing smoking."